Clemente has left us.
Adolescent, he decided to consecrate his life to God in the Benedictine monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos. Seven times a day, from dawn until nightfall, the monks gather in the church to contemplate and praise God, following a rule established by Saint Benedict in the sixth century. “Lord, come to my aid, hurry up to help me & rdquor ;. Clemente was elected abbot in 1989, following the monastic custom: by the monks themselves, in a secret vote. For life.
At the beginning of the 1990s, a record company launched a Gregorian chant album by the monks of Silos on the market; I was planning to sell, hopefully, a few thousand copies.; It became the great success of the moment, coming to occupy the first position, and not only in Spain. It was put (who would have imagined) in discos. European televisions requested an interview with the abbot; a New York producer made an offer for the monastic community to sing Gregorian at the United Nations, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, at a famous theater; he insisted, offered money. Clemente, with his ineffable smile, replied that they were monks, not a concert group.; that for them the Gregorian was a prayer. That with so much touring, so much movement, the community would be distracted from what is essential. There was no concert tour, despite the fact that at that time the monastery needed money to carry out restorations and various works.
Calm, kind, peaceful, born into a modest rural family, Clemente receives political figures, social life figures, and simple people with the same smile.
Almost a thousand years ago now, the monastery of San Sebastián de Silos, with its Visigothic roots, received a definitive boost from the monk Domingo, eventually Santo Domingo de Silos, who will give its name to the monastery. With the confiscation, monastic life disappeared, the building suffered, its great library dispersed. French monks from Solesmes and Ligugé restored monastic life in 1880, with effort and great merit. They plant the famous cypress in the center of the cloister, “arrow of faith, arrow of hope & rdquor; (Gerardo Diego). On the balcony of my house, then in Paris, I saw two sprouts grow, a gift from Clemente. In 1997 the three abbots planted them in Solesmes and Ligugé, where they prosper, a response to those beneficent French restorer monks. Today the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes – to which Silos belongs – is made up of more than twenty monasteries of monks (in different countries on three continents) and seven of nuns.
Among the many initiatives of Abbot Clemente the creation of the Association of Friends of Silos, the magazine Glosas Silenses, the restoration of the monastery of San Francisco, trips to Mount Athos, to Egypt, meeting with the great imam of Al Azhar… Today, throughout the year thousands of people attend the Gregorian chants; some decide to spend a few days of reflection and peace in Silos.
In 2012, after twenty-four years as abbot, Clemente saw his forces wane. Resignation. A serious ailment gradually cuts him off from the world. Until this week, when she takes him away forever.
An angel has just left us.
Now he will be part of another choir of angels.
Pray for us, Dear Clemente. I know you don’t abandon us. You will look at us with your kind smile. You will intercede for us.
A pleasure to have met you. Hallelujah.
Send us your blessing.
We still love you. More than ever.
Sunday of Silos Manso